


Valentine's Day

by spoowriterfic



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 13:39:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18639211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoowriterfic/pseuds/spoowriterfic
Summary: Waverly and Nicole celebrate their first Valentine's Day together.(This is almost entirely, as they say, fluff.)





	Valentine's Day

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, life has been...a lot...lately. Work has been challenging, and a change in my allergy medication sent me a good long visit from Jolene until I realized what it was that had destroyed my mental health and switched back. I think because of that, I found myself craving just some sweet moments with Waverly and Nicole, and ended up with this. It took longer than many of my stories do to write, but that could be because my brain was awash in malfunctioning brain chemicals for a few weeks.
> 
> This is set between 206 and 207, and you have to accept a slightly lengthened time frame than the show implies but I needed it to be before 207 because of the wishbone necklace Nicole is wearing in that episode. It may also contain a pre-canon "I love you" because...well, because I wanted there to be. *shrug*

It was a futile mission.

 

It was a completely futile mission.

 

And she knew it.

 

And yet, here she was, wandering the aisles of Purgatory’s finest grocery store on a _definitely_ futile mission to find some sort of non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated beverage that didn’t taste like the inside of a locker room.

 

Waverly had already forced her to try every kind of tea imaginable and had already begun recruiting Nicole into the act now that there was no hiding her pregnancy from anyone.

 

But of course none of it was actually drinkable.

 

She was scowling down the beverages aisle when something sitting at one of the checkout stands caught her eye. At first, she was so sure she was hallucinating that she walked cautiously down the aisle to get a closer look. But, sure enough, it was a gigantic pink teddy bear with a very incongruous unicorn horn sticking out of its forehead. Then she realized that it almost three full weeks into January and she had yet to overhear any obnoxiously goopy Valentine’s plans from either Nicole or Waverly.

 

She hadn’t been around for many of Waverly’s pre-Nicole experiences of Valentine’s Day, but her intuition told her that Champ Hardy had not been the most stellar celebrant of that particular holiday.

 

That she hadn’t heard Nicole planning anything, on the other hand — that surprised her a bit, and she resolved to correct _that_ oversight at the earliest possible opportunity.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

It was about twenty minutes before the end of her shift; all she really had left to do was fill out some paperwork responding to yet another noise complaint from Bunny Loblaw about her neighbors. She hadn’t been working in Purgatory for more than a week before meeting the apparent town luminary; to say she wasn’t impressed was an understatement and nothing had happened since then to improve that first impression. She strongly suspected the woman’s poor neighbors had done nothing wrong but she dutifully filled out the report anyway, secure in the knowledge that Nedley took it even less seriously than she did.

 

In fact, his official response was likely to be a very polite version of “thank you for letting us know but you’re the real problem here.”

 

She heard the footsteps long before Wynonna breezed into the room; they sounded just a bit different now as Wynonna adjusted to her changing center of gravity and the slightly uneven gait combined with the jingling of the necklace she always wore was a dead giveaway.

 

“Sooooo,” Wynonna said, plopping down in a chair next to her desk without any sort of preamble, “you have a plan, right?”

 

Nicole stared at her blankly. “A plan for what?”

 

“You’re planning something for the big V Day, right?”

 

Nicole took a breath, counted to ten, then did it again. After being treated to twenty minutes of passive aggressively xenophobic ranting about ‘that awful music,’ her patience was nearly shot. But, for Waverly’s sake if nothing else, she tried to hold it together. “For what?” she repeated as patiently as she could manage.

 

“Come on, it’s January twenty-third,” Wynonna said pointedly.

 

January twenty…?

 

Oh.

 

She put together the date with Wynonna’s slightly pained look, and she suddenly realized what she was getting at.

 

Still, the temptation to draw this out a bit was too much to bear. She and Wynonna were too much alike in that way for their own good, sometimes, and they both knew it. Wynonna delighted in (mostly gently) tormenting her, and the chance to give a bit back was just too tempting to pass up. “And?”

 

Wynonna glared at her suspiciously, correctly suspecting she was being teased. “ _You_ are a walking greeting card and you seriously don’t know Valentine’s Day is in less than a month?”

 

Nicole suppressed a grin and forced a confused look onto her face. “Really? Huh. Guess it is.” Perhaps not surprisingly, Wynonna (mostly jokingly; it only hurt a little bit) punched her in the upper arm. “I got her covered, Earp,” she relented with a much gentler, more reassuring smile. “Don’t you worry about that. She’s not the only planner in this relationship.”

 

In some ways, she was a little taken aback that Wynonna would even doubt such a thing; it was Nicole, after all, who’d gone to the trouble to find out Waverly’s birthday and had taken her out for coffee to celebrate, only a few weeks after they’d first met.

 

But, then, Wynonna adored nothing in life the way she did Waverly, and Nicole knew that Wynonna would take nothing for granted when it came to her baby sister’s happiness.

 

And in fact Wynonna smiled slightly – her more genuine, sincere one. “Make it good, okay? Just…something she said. I don’t think….”

 

“Yeah, Champ didn’t seem the Valentine’s Day type.”

 

Or the ‘birthday’ type, or the ‘anniversary’ type, or even the ‘don’t cheat on your girlfriend’ type. While they hadn’t been together all _that_ long yet, Nicole was fairly confident in saying she was crushing Champ in the ‘significant other’ game.

 

“Meanwhile you two should be the poster children for the whole damn holiday.”

 

Nicole smiled again. “It’s easy when you’re with someone who – ”

 

“Nope!” Wynonna cut her off emphatically. “Look, I love my sister and I’m glad she’s finally with someone who actually treats her the way she deserves to be treated, unlike that walking bundle of clueless testosterone, but there’s just some things about her life that I _really_ don’t need to know.”

 

Nicole rolled her eyes. “Then maybe you should learn to knock.”

 

Wynonna tipped an imaginary bottle in her direction. “Touché, Haught. Touché.”

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

The next evening, she found Waverly sitting at the kitchen table at the Homestead waiting for a pot of water to boil for tea. So, without any preamble, she sat in the chair next to her and put her aching feet up onto the chair across from them. “So…whatcha doing for V Day?”

 

Waverly stared back at her as blankly as Nicole had. “…what?”

 

Wynonna rolled her eyes. “You know…Valentine’s Day? Day for gross schmoopiness for all you lovey-dovey dorks?” Waverly continued to stare at her, completely uncomprehending. “Waverly. You in there? Need me to say it in Greek?”

 

“OhmyGodValentine’sDay!”

 

Wynonna snorted. “There it is.”

 

But instead of Nicole’s amused exasperation, she found herself facing an ashen-faced Waverly whose eyes were wide with something approaching panic. “Oh my God,” she fretted, standing up and pacing. “Valentine’s Day. I’ve never…I mean, I don’t know if she even – ” She turned and frowned at Wynonna. “How do you even _celebrate_ Valentine’s Day?!”

 

Wynonna sighed, briefly contemplating whether she could get Nedley to look the other way if she beat Champ up a little for treating her sister so badly. “Baby Girl. Stop.”

 

“But – ”

 

“Okay, so, look…” Wynonna pinched the bridge of her nose. “…you do know Nicole is _exactly_ the type of person who would tell you you’re the only gift she needs, right? And that she would _mean_ it?”

 

“But that doesn’t count!”

 

Wynonna rolled her eyes. “So go buy her something cheesy. Grocery store has teddy-bear unicorns.”

 

Waverly blinked at her.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

“Wynonna?”

 

Nicole’s voice was unusually hesitant, which meant only one thing: this was another Valentine’s Day thing. It had been almost two weeks of this from both of them, and at this rate, Wynonna figured they owed her at least a week of blissfully quiet nights at the Homestead and possibly a bottle or five of whiskey each.

 

She steeled herself and sat down in a spare chair near Nicole’s desk. “Now what?”

 

“Well, it’s just…okay, I know I told you I had her covered, but now I’m wondering if it’s too much, and I just thought – ”

 

“Somewhere, one of those court-ordered therapists I had to see is rolling in his grave at the thought of anyone asking me advice about anything.”

 

Nicole snorted, shrugging. “Well, if it weren’t Waverly, he’d probably have a point.”

 

Wynonna let her sweat her reaction for a few seconds before she rolled her eyes with an indulgent grin. “Fair enough.”

 

“Wait…his grave?”

 

“Not even I would be unlucky enough to have a revenant therapist. No, he was just old. At least eighty when I met him.”

 

“So, look…I…I wanted to….”

 

“Spit it out, Haught.”

 

“She’s…so many people have abandoned her. I want her to know I won’t.”

 

Wynonna shot her a slightly surprised look. “Okay, I know the stereotype, but isn’t it a bit early for – ”

 

“I’m not talking about _proposing_.” But Nicole sighed and handed over a small box. “But I am talking about promise rings. But is it too much? It’s too much. Right? It’s too much too soon and – ”

 

Wynonna willed herself not to tear up; she’d known for a while that Nicole genuinely loved Waverly, but she couldn’t help but wonder when Nicole would hit her supernatural limit. And now she appeared to be saying she didn’t have one.

 

And more: here was someone who understood that, for all her legitimate badassery, Waverly was carrying a deep wound in the depths of her heart – and was doing whatever she could to help that wound heal, even if just a little bit. “It’s perfect,” she admitted.

 

“Really?”

 

“It’s perfect, and don’t expect me to say this again until you _are_ marrying her someday, but…she hit the jackpot when you landed in town.”

 

“Thanks, Wynonna.”

 

“Just one thing.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

Wynonna pinned her with the most serious look she could muster. “I want one week – just _one_ , Haught – where I get to sleep all night in my own damn house without having to wear noise-cancelling headphones. Are we clear on that?”

 

Nicole grinned, a mischievous look in her eyes that never meant anything good. “So any other time of the day is okay? I’m sure we can manage that. I mean, it’s Valentine’s _Day_ , not Valentine’s Night.”

 

“For God’s sake.”

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

By the tenth of February, Wynonna was daydreaming about time travel just so she could skip ahead to the fifteenth. At least once a day, either Nicole or Waverly would approach her with another idea, question, or worry about Valentine’s Day, and, frankly, she was about ready to run an ad on the only billboard in town telling all the revenants that she would be camping alone in the woods for the next four days in case any of them wanted to try their luck against a fed-up Heir.

 

By the thirteenth, Wynonna had taken to hiding in the barn at all hours of the day.

 

And she was in the barn when Nicole knocked gently, and then a little more insistently, at the side door at some godawful pre-dawn hour on Valentine’s Day morning. “Wynonna?” she half-whispered.

 

Wynonna tried to hide under her pillow. “Go away.”

 

“Wynonna, I just need to get into – ”

 

With a groan, Wynonna forced herself upright, staggered to the door, opened it, grabbed Nicole none-too-gently by the wrist, and dragged her around to the door at the backside of the barn, where she wordlessly pointed at a key nestled in the gap between an upright beam and the wooden slats behind it. She turned and left without a word, lying back down and ignoring Nicole’s quiet, gentle, “Thank you, Wynonna.”

 

But as she drifted off back to sleep, she smiled slightly.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Nicole smiled as she set the spare key down on the kitchen table; for all of Wynonna’s bluster, she realized that this was a big moment – it was Wynonna saying that she _trusted_ Nicole – and not just with Waverly, but with the Homestead, with their very safety.

 

She put a kettle of water on to boil for tea, then put some bread in the toaster and sliced an apple and a banana, spending a few minutes to put together a quick breakfast tray for Waverly, then crept quietly up the stairs when everything was arranged to her liking.

 

She knocked gently on the door, more so she wouldn’t startle Waverly than as a serious attempt at waking her, then eased inside and put her tray down on the dresser. She paused for a moment to smile at it; Waverly had just recently gotten it at a thrift store in the city, and she’d left half the drawers empty for Nicole – between that and the bed she’d gotten shortly after the first time they’d been together, Nicole felt a little less nervous about the matching promise rings that were sitting in her right pocket.

 

Because she knew what Waverly was trying to tell her, even if she seemed unable to find the words herself.

 

She knew that anyone looking at their relationship from the outside probably _would_ find it objectively, stereotypically fast – but their connection had felt special from the very first moment when her heart had lurched as though it had just met its other half. It was as though their hearts had just been waiting for them to find each other. She remembered shaking Waverly’s hand across the bar in Shorty’s, and then the long, frozen moment when the world stopped around them and neither had been able to let go.

 

The months between that moment and Waverly showing up in Nedley’s office had felt interminable – but they’d also given them a solid foundation of friendship above and beyond the immediate, powerful tug of their hearts towards each other.

 

This was no drunken, euphoric, spur-of-the-moment Vegas wedding. This was both more and less; it was Nicole promising Waverly that she would be there with her for as long as Waverly would have her without pushing her faster than she might be ready for.

 

This was an acknowledgement: she and Waverly had a future – and they could take their time to define exactly what that future was.

 

She patted the dresser affectionately, then crossed the room to kneel at Waverly’s side, running her fingers through sleep-mussed hair. “Wave?”

 

Waverly muttered an incoherent groan of protest, which made Nicole smile. She was normally a morning person but the last few days had been full of activity – of both the regular and supernatural kind – and for a few seconds, she felt bad about waking her up so early.

 

She patted the small box in her pocket and worked up her nerve to try again.

 

“Waverly. Hey. Happy Valentine’s Day, baby.”

 

At that, Waverly pried her eyes open, looking around the dark room with a frown. “Are you sure?”

 

“It’s not _that_ early…it’s about 5:30.”

 

Waverly scowled. “You’re lucky you’re my best baby.”

 

“Well. I’m definitely lucky,” Nicole said, leaning over to give Waverly a good morning kiss. “I brought tea and toast but we’re gonna have to leave by 5:45 or so if we want to see the sunrise.”

 

“…we want to see the sunrise?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“You sure about that?” Waverly glanced again at the darkness outside her window, then turned back – this time, with some playful seduction in her eyes.

 

Nicole groaned. “Waves.”

 

“ _Fine_ ,” Waverly conceded with a laugh as she pushed off her blankets and stood. “Fine, I’ll get up.” She stopped by the dresser and picked up the tea. “Thank you for breakfast.” Then she stopped and skipped back across the room to kiss Nicole soundly. “Happy Valentine’s Day.” She turned and got her clothes, glancing back with a mischievous smile. “Be right back.”

 

A little dazed, Nicole could only mumble, “Uh, sure.”

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

The air was frigid, hovering just around zero degrees, but the sky was clear and the stars were sparkling overhead while the first pale pinks of dawn began to appear in the east. Nicole and Waverly were sitting together in one camp chair in front of a small campfire, Waverly curled up on Nicole’s lap and covered with several blankets.

 

“Isn’t watching the sunrise together a little clichéd?”

 

Nicole rolled her eyes.  “Things become clichés for a reason, Waves.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Sure. If something sucked, no one would do something enough for it to become a cliché in the first place.”

 

Waverly smiled and nestled a little closer. “Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetie.”

 

It was hard – so hard – to stifle the _I love you_ that was sitting right on the tip of her tongue. She was still not entirely sure why Waverly – who was otherwise very effusive, with nicknames and sappy compliments all the time – found it so hard to _say_ what her actions, her expressions, her voice, her eyes – what they were all yelling from the rooftop, but if Waverly wasn’t ready to say _I love you_ , maybe she wasn’t ready to hear it yet.

 

So instead she threaded her fingers through Waverly’s hair and tried to pour every ounce of love she felt into a long, sweet kiss.

 

When Waverly pulled back, eyes a little glassy, and a dreamy smile on her face, she shook her head. “It’s freezing out. Literally,” she said a little incongruously.

 

“And?”

 

“And I’m not cold at all,” Waverly said, still dreamy-eyed.

 

Nicole grinned. “Well, that was kind of the idea of the fire, and the one chair, and the mountain of blankets, and – ”

 

“And you know very well that’s not what I meant,” Waverly cut her off with a lighthearted grin.

 

It was in these moments that Nicole really understood just how lucky she was that Waverly – this amazing, wonderful, resilient woman – had chosen to be with her. Because everything about Waverly’s life should have beaten her down – it should have made her cynical and angry and resentful. And it had done the opposite. It had toughened her, sure, but in all the best ways, and the fact that she could smile like _that_ amidst everything…

 

…it was remarkable.

 

It was almost supernatural.

 

It was beautiful.

 

And looking into Waverly’s sparkling eyes and seeing that mischievous grin, she couldn’t stop herself. “I love you,” she whispered, the words coming straight from her heart and bypassing her brain entirely. Immediately worried she’d gone too far, pushed too hard, she inhaled sharply and winced. “Waverly, I’m sorry. You…I…if you’re not ready to – ”

 

But Waverly smiled very obviously happy-tears, then surged forward  and kissed her, hard. And when she pulled back, though she still didn’t say anything, there was no mistaking the look in her eyes.

 

Nicole said quietly, “Please don’t feel like you have to say…anything. I just couldn’t…not say it…anymore.”

 

Waverly just shook her head, a speculative look in her eyes for a long moment before whatever she was going to say got put back into a box in her head for later. 

 

“I have a present for you. But I want you to know something first.”

 

“Okay?”

 

This time, when Nicole took a deep breath, it wasn’t a sigh so much as a prayer for courage.  “So…I…I said to you that I’m with you for as long as you want me. And I meant it. And I wanted to _show_ you I meant it. But if it’s too much, Waverly, especially after I said…it can just be pretty jewelry, okay? But I, um, I thought maybe promise rings…?”

 

Waverly’s eyes widened in a complex mixture of joy and astonishment. “You…?”

 

“When I promise something, I mean it. And I promised you I’d be by your side, but I know…I know that not many people have kept that kind of promise to you. So I wanted you to have something to…remind you. On bad days. That I’m here for you. That I’m _yours_. For as long as you want me.” She shrugged, gesturing towards the coming dawn. “And I thought…the start of a new day was a good time for that.”

 

Waverly swallowed hard, blinking rapidly. “C-can I…see it?”

 

“Them,” Nicole said quietly. “Matching ones. For both of us. I mean, i-if you want…me…to….” Waverly nodded, so Nicole dug the box out of her pocket and flipped the top open. “They’re not – I mean they’re – they’re – ” Nicole winced at her own babbling and forced herself to stop.

 

Once she stopped, she was able to take in the look of absolute wonder on Waverly’s face. She had taken one ring out from its box and was holding it in shaking fingers before she slipped it on her middle finger, running her other finger over the oval-shaped turquoise in the center. She held out the other one to Nicole, who gulped and allowed Waverly to slip the ring onto her own middle finger, unable to keep from imagining a moment in her mind’s eye with a different ring on a different finger.

 

A spring sunset on the Homestead. Waverly in a white dress with lace sleeves. Her in her dress blues. Wynonna making some sort of snarky comment as Waverly slipped a ring onto her fourth finger.

 

The vision was so clear she could almost smell the spring flowers Waverly was wearing threaded into a tiara, holding the lace veil that trailed behind her.

 

Then Waverly settled back against her, put her head on her shoulder, and sighed deeply as they watched the sun rise.

 

It jolted her back to reality, but after allowing herself just a tiny moment of disappointment that her vision had been just a daydream, she rested her cheek on Waverly’s hair and wrapped her arms around her just a little tighter.

 

Waverly looked up with another smile, then put her head back down and looked out towards the coming dawn.

 

Only when the last pinks of sunrise had faded into a clear blue sky did Nicole relax and allow herself to believe the morning was really real.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

“I’m so sorry I have to work today,” Nicole said she dropped Waverly off at her own house. “I tried to get Lonnie to switch with me but he and his wife are having problems and he wanted to – ”

 

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Waverly said with a gentle smile. “Gives me time to get this place ready for dinner tonight. Wynonna’s been bugging me about…uh….”

 

“The noise,” Nicole said with a grin. “Me too. And…I figure…I mean, it benefits all of us, you know? We get some privacy and she gets a full night’s sleep.”

 

“ _And_ she won’t have anything to tease us about in the morning.” Waverly shrugged at Nicole’s skeptical look. “More than she usually does, anyway. Okay, okay. Now go. You know there’s probably all kinds of rose de-thorning dramas going on today.” She gave Nicole a quick kiss on the cheek. “See you tonight.”

 

Nicole sighed happily, taking a moment to run her thumb along Waverly’s jawline. “Bye, cutie,” she said with a smile. 

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

An hour or two later, Nicole hefted a small biodegradable planter in one arm and a box of Vosges truffles in her other hand, then approached her own front door and smiled when she heard the cheerful singing inside.

 

“It’s me,” she announced as she unlocked the door, having already learned that while she was definitely the more easy-going of the Earps, Waverly was no slouch in the self-defense department and a little bit hair-triggered, especially outside the relative safety of the Homestead. “Hey, baby.”

 

Waverly turned off the music and called over her shoulder, “You’re back early.”

 

“Yeah, Nedley said I could go. It was really quiet and he…uh…well, Wynonna may have…encouraged…him to send me over here.  For your sake.”

 

Waverly laughed merrily, then turned and her jaw dropped.  “Nicole, what – ?”

 

Nicole shrugged. “Aren’t flowers and candy another Valentine’s Day cliché?”

 

“Y-yeah, but you already….” She held up her hand, palm inward, to display the ring she was wearing on her middle finger. “I mean, you already gave me a gift. And I-I didn’t get _you_ flowers, and – ”

 

Nicole put the planter and chocolates down, then crossed the room to rest her arms on Waverly’s shoulders. “You are worth way more than _one_ gift, Waverly Earp. Besides, those are whiskey and stout flavored truffles. How could I _not_ get you whiskey and stout flavored truffles?”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yep. Found ‘em on the Internet.” Waverly tilted her head with a skeptical look and Nicole shrugged. “Okay, I found them on the Internet when I searched for ‘alcohol-flavored chocolate’?”

 

“You should buy some for Wynonna for her birthday.”

 

“Who says I didn’t?” Nicole asked with a grin. “And the planter is baby roses. I know you don’t like cut ones ‘cause they die, but you can plant those in the kitchen at the Homestead. The container’s biodegradable in case you already have a pot or something. And you don’t have to get me anything, baby. You’re more than enough of a gift for me.”

 

With a startled laugh, Waverly shook her head. “Wynonna said you’d say that.” She sighed, gently stroking Nicole’s jawline with her thumbs. “How did I get so lucky?”

 

She’d meant it as a rhetorical question, but Nicole answered it anyway. “Because you deserve _everything_. And if one of those things you’re lucky about is me…then you’ve got me. For as long as you want me.”

 

Waverly broke eye contact as she pressed her lips together. “What’s if that’s a really long time? What if it’s – ”

 

Though she cut herself off before she could say it, Nicole could see the _forever_ as clearly as if the letters hung in the air between them.  “However long, Waves. A day…a month…a year…fifty years. A hundred. I’m here. I’m here and I’ll stay. For as long as you want me to.”

 

Months later, she would learn that an echo of those words would help save Waverly’s life but for now they just made her glow with joy.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Waverly shooed Nicole out of the house long enough to go get a late lunch. Her early arrival home had put a hitch in some of the plans she had for getting the house ready for Valentine’s Day, but she didn’t call herself a planner for nothing: she had a backup plan, and sending Nicole for sandwiches for lunch would give her just enough time for Plan B.

 

She got a fire going in the fireplace and turned out all the lights, lighting some candles on any shelf that was above Calamity’s reach – though hopefully the treats she’d hidden throughout the upstairs rooms would keep the cat busy enough to leave them alone at least for a while.

 

She finished putting dinner in the Crock Pot and oven – vegan lasagna in the Crock Pot for her, and as a concession to the day, decidedly non-vegan lasagna for Nicole – then she slipped into the restroom to change into an outfit she knew Nicole loved her in (figuring that lingerie might be too stereotypical, she instead saved an outfit she remembered getting that particular star-eyed smitten look instead), then sat on the couch to wait for her to get back.

 

“I’m back,” Nicole announced some time later. “Hey, Waves, sorry it took so long but….” Her voice trailed off as she looked around in something akin to wonder. “Baby, you look…”

 

“…okay?”

 

“ _Beautiful_ ,” Nicole said with endearing sincerity, putting the bag of takeout down on the coffee table to settle next to Waverly on the couch, gently trailing her fingers down Waverly’s sleeves before she leaned over and kissed her.

 

Lunch was forgotten entirely as they immersed themselves in each other – until Waverly’s phone rang.

 

“I swear, if that’s your sister, I’m gonna – ”

 

Laughing, Waverly cut her off with a brief kiss.  “It is, but I’ve got an idea.”

 

Nicole raised an eyebrow.  “An…idea?”

 

Waverly grinned mischievously. “Hi, Wynonna,” she said, affecting a breathy, winded voice. “Look, Nicole and I are kinda…busy. I can put you on Facetime if you wait for me to put on a sheet – no, probably another couple of hours at least.” She grinned. “Sure you don’t want to video chat?”

 

Nicole smothered a laugh, cleared her throat, and said in the most over-the-top sultry voice she could manage, “Waves, baby, what’s up? Are you coming…back to bed?”

 

Waverly rolled her eyes but gave Nicole a thumbs-up as Wynonna squawked loud enough for Nicole to hear even though she wasn’t on speakerphone. “What was that, Wynonna? No, no, it’s okay.  I’ll give you a call in the morning, unless you need something right now? Okay, talk to you tomorrow.” She hung up the phone with a triumphant grin. “That was _perfect_ , baby!”

 

“Well, I mean, she can’t get mad at us for noise and then call us on Valentine’s Day!”

 

“Probably just trying to keep her interrupting streak going.”  Waverly very deliberately put her phone down and turned back to Nicole. “Now…where were we?”

 

“Freaking your sister out. From afar. Hopefully.”

 

“Well, it’d be a shame to stop now, wouldn’t it?”

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

“Wonder where Calamity is?” Nicole mused sometime later, laying curled up on the couch with Waverly half-draped on top of her.

 

“Probably still looking for treats,” Waverly said, unconcerned.

 

“Huh?”

 

“I hid half a bag’s worth of treats all over upstairs. Figured it’d keep her busy for a while. Maybe even wear her out.”

 

Nicole groaned. “Waves.”

 

“I know, I know, the vet said to cut down on treats. But this is a special occasion. Besides, she probably gave up after a couple and took a nap.”

 

“Fine,” Nicole said, not really perturbed.

 

But Waverly wasn’t done gently teasing: “That’s not even getting into the fact that the bag I got the treats from looks an awful lot like the full one I brought you over the weekend, and it was already a quarter gone.”

 

“Fine,” Nicole repeated, this time with a laugh. “That was actually really clever.” A pause. “You know, maybe we should try the same trick on Wynonna. Tell her there’s whiskey buried under the barn or something.”

 

Waverly trailed her fingers up and down Nicole’s bare arm, raising goosebumps behind her touch. “Nicole?”

 

“Y-yeah?” Nicole said, clearing her throat when her voice cracked. “Uh, yeah?”

 

“Let’s stop talking about my sister.”

 

Nicole grinned.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

With supreme effort of will, Waverly pried herself out of Nicole’s arms later that afternoon, despite Nicole’s somewhat incoherent grunt of protest. “Sorry, baby, I have to turn on the oven for your dinner.”

 

“Do we really _need_ dinner?” A pause. “Wait, what about the crock pot?”

 

Waverly laughed and gently unwrapped Nicole’s arms from around her waist. “Well, I made lasagna.” Nicole harrumphed. “Vegan for me. And I _might_ have made a separate batch for you.”

 

Nicole’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean…?”

 

“Ricotta cheese.  Ground beef. Mozzarella and parmesan on top. It’s Wynonna’s ‘real’ lasagna recipe.”

 

Nicole’s eyes lit up. “You made Wynonna’s lasagna?”

 

“Of course I did,” Waverly said. “It’s Valentine’s Day. You love her lasagna.”

 

“Yeah, but…I mean, you didn’t have to cook all that for me. I know you hate it.”

 

“I don’t, though. I don’t hate it. I just don’t eat it myself. And you enjoy it, so….” Waverly shrugged a little uncomfortably. “I didn’t mean to make it a…thing. I just wanted to make you something you love.”

 

Nicole got up from the couch and came over to circle Waverly with her arms. “I’m sorry.” She kissed the tip of Waverly’s nose. “Thank you for going outside your comfort zone to make something special for me. That was really sweet.”

 

“That’s better,” Waverly huffed playfully. “Now let me go turn on the oven.”

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Nicole was washing dishes when Calamity Jane finally showed up at her feet, meowing pitifully.  “You really think you’re getting dinner after you spent all day looking for treats?” she asked the cat even as she – and Calamity – heard Waverly rummaging in the cabinet. “Canned food? Really?”

 

“It’s a special day.”

 

“For us. Not for cats.”

 

Waverly shrugged. “She’s had to deal with me monopolizing all your attention all day. Give her this.”

 

“Fine,” Nicole fake-huffed. “But you get to take her to her next vet appointment.”

 

“Deal.” Waverly knelt and gave a grateful Calamity a scoop of canned food, scratching her gently behind the ears. Then she got up and caught Nicole by the wrist. “Leave the dishes,” she said quietly.

 

“Oh?”

 

“I have a present for you.”

 

“Waves, I told you – you’re the only – ”

 

“Hush,” Waverly said, silencing her with a quick kiss. “You get a gift and that’s that.”

 

Nicole raised her hands in mock surrender. “Yes, ma’am.”

 

Waverly sat down on the couch, suddenly a little nervous. “So.” She swallowed hard. “So, um. I think we were both kind of thinking along the same lines. Which makes a few of Wynonna’s snarky comments make a lot more sense.”

 

“Oh?” Nicole asked again.

 

“I got us matching jewelry too?” Waverly said.

 

Nicole was certain her heart skipped an actual beat. They’d couldn’t be _that_ in sync. Could they? “Y-you did?”

 

“Yeah.” Waverly swallowed again. “But not – not rings. I, um….” She took a breath and suddenly pushed past all the nerves and pulled a necklace out of a small silk bag, pressing it into Nicole’s hand.

 

“Waverly….”

 

All the nerves were gone, and Waverly took a moment to stroke her thumb across Nicole’s cheek.  “All my life,” she said, “I wished that things could be…different. That Mama would stay. That Daddy would…notice me. That Wynonna would stop blaming herself and be…okay.” Her eyes dropped. “That just one thing in my life would be… _easy_.” She took a breath and looked back up, holding up the wishbone-shaped necklace. “I don’t have to wish anymore.” She bit her lip. “Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetie.”

 

Nicole smiled. “First of many, baby. First of _so_ many.”

**Author's Note:**

> Three additional notes:
> 
> 1\. The teddy bear unicorn is actually a thing. I saw it at my grocery store last year. It was a good three feet tall and sitting on top of the impulse-candy-buying thing in between each checkout line in all its glory until a couple of days before Valentine's Day, when someone apparently actually bought it for their valentine.
> 
> 2\. I had noticed the matching rings early in season 3, but right when I started writing this, there was a post on tumblr that I've long since lost pointing out that Waverly was also wearing a wishbone necklace identical to Nicole's in a non-207 episode. While it's entirely possible they just share jewelry, I like this better. 
> 
> 3\. I now kinda headcanon the notion that Waverly picked the song she did for her Christmas dance because of the line "I can strike it off my list / I no longer need to wish".


End file.
